Russian Power Plant Saves 1.3 Million Gallons of Water Annually with Corrosion Inhibitor

A gas-fired power plant in the Samara area of the Volga region of Russia saved 1.3 million gallons of water annually and reduced water consumption enough to save $120,000 annually by using GE’s (USA) AZ8101 corrosion inhibitor technology. TEC VAZ VoTGK also decreased the rate of copper corrosion by 20 times and reduced the amount of copper being discharged into the Volga River by four times.

In honor of its notable reductions in water usage and decreased corrosion, GE awarded TEC VAZ VoTGK an Ecomaginaton award, which recognizes the achievements of industrial users for striking a positive balance between today's environmental, industrial and sustainability challenges. It is given to the top GE customers in environmental and economic performance.

“Our operational costs had been rising and we were being charged a penalty for discharging water with a high copper concentration. GE’s AZ8101 corrosion inhibitor allowed us to save $120,000 a year in cooling costs and to experience a 20-fold reduction in admiralty brass corrosion rates. Now our Volga power plant’s cooling systems run more smoothly,” said Vadim Nikolaev, director and chief engineer, TEC VAZ VoTGK.

The TEC VAZ VoTGK plant provides power, heating and hot water to the Volga automotive plant and a nearby city. The power plant consists of 14 boilers and 11 turbines, surface condensers made from admiralty brass and two open evaporative cooling systems provide the cooling to the steam condensers and auxiliary equipment. The makeup water for both cooling systems is raw water taken directly from the Volga River, and blowdown from the cooling systems is discharged back to the river.

Previously, the cooling systems were untreated, which resulted in high copper corrosion rates and the plant operated the cooling systems at low cycles of concentration to reduce the discharge penalty caused by the high copper concentrations within the effluent. To reduce the copper corrosion rates, GE’s inhibitor AZ8101 was added to the cooling systems along with implementation of a monitoring program to gauge the effectiveness of the cooling water treatment upgrade. The new monitoring program included copper corrosion monitoring with the use of pre-weighed admiralty brass corrosion coupons, copper analysis within the recirculating water and residual azole monitoring.

“It takes a lot of water to produce energy and water is a precious resource. By reducing the amount of corrosion, the TEC VAZ VoTGK power plant was able to also meet environmental regulations by not discharging copper into the environment and reducing the use of 1.3 million gallons of water annually,” said Kevin Cassidy, chemical and monitoring solutions general manager—water and process technologies for GE Power & Water.